Pendle going to the polls

Whatever else happens when Pendle goes to the polls next month, the make-up of Pendle Borough Council is bound to change.

Brian Parker, the last BNP councillor in Pendle, was not nominated when the deadline fell on Friday.

Paul White

And that has left his seat in the Marsden ward of Nelson up for a straight fight between Labour’s Laura Michelle Blackburn and the Conservative candidate Neil McGowan.

Ahead of the election the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have a joint administration.

Of the 49 seats on the council, Labour have 15 and the Liberal Democrats nine and while that doesn’t give them a majority, they have managed to jointly control the council despite the fact that there are 23 Conservative councillors and one independent, former Pendle mayor and Conservative councillor Rosemary Carroll.

When polling stations open on Thursday, May 3rd, the Conservatives will be defending five seats, Labour seven and the Liberal Democrats three.

Lord Greaves

Voting will take place in 16 of the council’s 18 wards with no voting in either the Blacko and Highford or Higham and Pendleside wards.

Brian Parker aside, two other sitting councillors are not seeking re-election.

Sarah Cockburn-Price is not standing in the Boulsworth ward in Colne and Lyle Davy will not contest Coates ward in Barnoldswick.

Of the 16 wards going to the polls, eight will be a straight fight between Conservative and Labour candidates – Barrowford, Bradley, Brierfield, Clover Hill, Marsden, Southfield, Walverden and Whitefield – and of those eight, six are currently held by Labour, one by the BNP and one by the Tories. Both the Conservative and Labour parties will contest all 16, the Liberal Democrats eight and the Green Party three.